Author Archives: Roger Moore

Let’s go ahead and call the code on “E.R.” alumnus George Clooney‘s days of serving up nostalgic Americana as a director. “The Boys in the Boat” is that badly-botched. After “Monuments Men” and “Leatherheads” and a stumbling “Catch-22” series, maybe … Continue reading →

Cute and quippy, “Merry Little Batman” is an adorably silly holiday goof on DC/Warner Brothers’ most valuable comic book franchise. It’s light and fun enough that it has to be giving the Warner suits staring down “Aquaman” and “Suicide Squad” … Continue reading →

Neil Simon co-wrote it, Burt Bachrach and Hal David composed the jaunty music, Vittoria De Sica directed it and Peter Sellers starred in it. But when “After the Fox” came out in 1966, this sly farce about The State of … Continue reading →

It was a blockbuster when it opened on the Subcontinent. But as in North America, being a big box office hit isn’t necessarily a qualifier for Oscar glory. India’s submission for this year’s Best International Feature competition is a sentimental, … Continue reading →

The comforts, traumas and shortcomings of “Memory” make for a poignant if somewhat melodramatic romance and star vehicle for two of the best in the acting business — Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard. It’s a story of two damaged people, … Continue reading →

A bracing, trippy thriller that lets technique overwhelm a simple story, “NAGA” is like no Saudi film we’ve ever seen before. Writer-director Meshal Al Jaser’s tale of young female (limited) rebellion and a quest to escape a posh party in … Continue reading →

One hair-raising moment in the Korean thriller “The Ghost Station,” a tale of people having subway”accidents” that look like nothing of the sort, involves cell phone tech. Someone points their cell camera down a tunnel. The focus framing outline pops … Continue reading →

Hand it to Warner Bros. for their approach to their favorite piece of Roald Dahl intellectual property. They didn’t just remake “Charlie” or “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” They took a stab at giving us a back story about … Continue reading →

It was all supposed to be “utopian.” High-rise apartment towers, surrounded by trees — and other apartment towers — would provide affordable housing, convenience, population density that makes mass transit and other service deliveries “efficient” and could create instant “community.” … Continue reading →

Hayao Miyazaki, the great Japanese animator whose name is synonymous with the anime art form, told the world he was retiring with the 2013 film “The Wind Rises.” That’s a fascinating, mostly historical World War II story about the idealistic … Continue reading →